 The Lubbock, Texas airport. A warm evening in early May. The temperature is now 78. Some indications of severe weather conditions developing to the south and west of the city. For Lubbock, a strong possibility of thundershowers later in the evening. Downtown in the Emergency Operations Center at City Hall. The civil defense director, Bill Ping, is just leaving the office. Well, that doesn't look too bad, does it, Linda? Good night. Not much, Pam. Good evening, City Hall. One moment, please. Going home, Bill? Nope, showing this down top from this club. I'll be at the ambush. See you later. The sky still bright, but worrisome. Some cumulus building up. So far, Lubbock's been lucky. For years, tornadoes have been hitting all around, but never the city itself. But Texans have learned to take their weather seriously. And tonight, Payne is talking to the Monterey Optimists Club in South Lubbock, explaining the city's new emergency operations plan for dealing with various kinds of disaster. And showing a national weather service film called Tornado. There's a message from City Hall. Bill, this is Lou. The weather bureau just called, and you're going to issue a severe thunderstorm morning. OK, Lou, call the operating department. I'll be right in. Coming back, the skies turn black. And already, KFYO, the local emergency broadcast station, is beginning its weather watch. We're sharing the past 10 minutes, indicate golf balls to baseball-sized hail in the vicinity of McKinsey State Park, with the hail increasing at this time. In the emergency operating center. You'll see, Payne speaking. Bill, we're all out here. Red bean supper. If things get rough, let us know. OK, urgent. Yeah, I'll call you. I need you. On the other side of top, the Lubbock Firemen are throwing their annual bash. A red bean and cornbread supper for their friends. The host, fire chief Kershaw Sharpe. And among the guests, Bill Blackwell, the city manager. JT Alley, chief of police. Dealing citizens, the press. Radio man Bob Nash and Max Mott. Looks like the weather bureau may have to issue a tornado warning at the point. Oh, don't sweat it, Max. You've got less chance of being hit by a tornado than being trampled by a dinosaur. District 1, Lois-Garman. Lois-Rodman, I'm receiving very, very heavy rains and very heavy hail. For Bill Payne, a time for waiting and listening, as police reports begin to flow in. OK, I'm still going east. The rain is still heavy, and I'm getting golf balls-sized hail. 89, clear. If you've got a unit out around the traffic circle south of town, it can give us a report on that large hail. 10-4, I'm sitting over on 4th Street, and from here it looks like one big, heavy, dark cloud centered to around 23rd. And everyone wants to wait to see something like it snakes down and it goes back up to you. Alan, we have a hook about 7 miles south of the airport. Operator, would you contact Bill Payne please and tell him the weather bureau is issuing a tornado warning for Lubbock County. Radar indicates a possible tornado, 7 miles south of the airport. McWackle, things are not looking too good. I like you, Herschel and Bob Shannon. Come on, Bill. OK, Bill, I'll round up the troops and be right there. At the Red Bean Supper, the singing Plainsmen have taken over the entertainment. They're back at the EOC. The city manager, safety director Bob Shannon, all the city's key department heads. 800 operators. The radio room and switchboards are fully mapped, according to plan. The emergency center is ready for action. Chief, are you used to it? You're pretty well covered throughout the city. Three of them. Three. OK, 60 to 80, stand up ahead right. We've got a line parking for your baby. We've got a line. Maybe out there we'll play now in six miles or so. The dispatch office, the tower is out. Across the street from city hall, the radio stations also lost power. But as part of the emergency broadcast system, the station has an old emergency generator, obtained as surplus property from the Defense Civil Preparedness Agency. The switch is thrown. The station is back on the air. 790 on your radio dial, Lubbock, Texas, on the weather watch. The tornado warning remains in effect for Lubbock, Western Crosby, Floyd, and southern Hale counties until 10 PM tonight. And now more music. Now, we've got a new hook down here moving toward us. Lubbock DPS, Lubbock Weather Bureau. This is Johnson at the Weather Bureau office. Would you advise the police department in Idlewood to sound the warning sirens for a possible tornado? The Weather Bureau is issuing a tornado warning for the city. If they watch the base of the darkest cloud, we've had one reportable final. And that's rain level. Rain is real heavy, out of the 289. The wind's about 60 miles an hour. Rain is blowing from the southwest. OK, the cloud southeast just dropped two hooks a minute ago. And then they went right back up into cloud. A possible tornado was indicated by a radar at 857. And a funnel cloud has been observed in this same area. A massive storm has just struck downtown Lubbock. All persons, take cover. Come out here on Erskine Road at this time, head it back in for its town. It's raining hard. I can't help to see it, it's raining. I'm completely stopped. OK, FYO. Hello, this is Bob White, Carol Ian Dallas. Could you give me something brief for my 10 o'clock? Now, right now, you'll have to hold on. All citizens, do not attempt to come into the downtown Lubbock area because hot wires are down. OK, I'm on this hill, looking back toward Pam. You've got a point cloud, and you're out over the city limit. Looks like it's touching the ground. I can hear it coming. You better find yourself a spot. Don't worry, I'm going to get right onto the table here. There's a little nature over there. There's probably something going on down there. There's the right station. Chief Central's been here. Lower. Tornado. Don't hang up, I'll be right back. The tornado smashed directly into city hall and the police station just upstairs. For seven seconds, the lights go off. Then the emergency generator kicks in. Marry one over in a downtown, or it is. This never comes back in town. Don't come in and shoot the pretty day it's hit here. Horrible. Roars on north through the city, toward country club and the airport. Then lifts just over the weather bureau, leaving Lubbock behind it in shambles. Police station has been here. Our communications is failing. A little unable to see them. Do we have any lines left? Only incoming, we can't call out. Well, hold those you have and keep trying. All right, yes, sir. Mr. White, will the hotline of DPS still working? Major? Looks like we've been hit pretty hard here in the downtown area. Well, central fire station has been hit, the police station in city hall. Could you start some of your people in our direction? Quickly, state police cruisers from the Department of Public Safety move in, circle their wagons at city hall, begin relaying emergency messages. And Max Mott and Bob Nash of the radio station have cannibalized equipment from one of their mobile units, are springing cable down the stairs. Give me a cue, I'll take it any time, any time, any time. OK, you're on. This is the Lubbock operational area emergency broadcast system with me is Bill Payne, the civil defense director for the city of Lubbock. Hey, Dallas, keep this line open. Don't get off this line. You're the only outside contact. OK, I'll stay on hold there. Now, have you had any reports of injuries? Not yet. We just had it hit downtown. We can't get anything in. I'm afraid to look out the damn window. Wait a minute. The city hall is completely broken. All of the glass is out of it. It's standing, but all the glass is out of it. People are pouring into the EOC, the mayor of Lubbock. And members of the city council, they go into emergency session in Bill Payne's office. I hope you have the city manager do this, the operational aspect of the city. I'd recommend that we go ahead and let him run this show just like he does today. That's right. We're going to need a lot of help. Could you go ahead and input Austin in contact with the governor's office and get the National Guard ready to activate? Quickly, the news is relayed to the capital at Austin, the State Department of Defense and Disaster Relief. The city of Lubbock has been hit by a tornado. Then, on to Washington, DC. They want to be got cordoned off here now. Communications are out, but each man knows what he has to do. It's all laid out in the emergency plan. Our problem right now is going to be to work out all these motels along the Amarillo Highway. We're going to make these motels one-to-one and go through the whole thing. If we have to, we'll drain those swimming pools. We've got six 4-man teams going to do some rescue, certain rescue. So we'll take this part of this area and also it's going to be part of this area. We're kind of out of here with that. There's some people trapped in the apartment. Emergency rooms at all the Lubbock hospitals are being swamped with tornado victims. Others are coming into City Hall. And just down the hallway from the EOC, Helen Payne, Bill's wife, has set up a first aid station. Is there anything you need? Not right now. We're doing pretty good. Do you know what area was hit hardest? I know about one area. It's supposed to be the 2,900 block of Third Street. Third Street? That's my street. OK, can you confirm anything? I don't think so. I mean, if you're not able to get a unit into there at 50 times, hang it on it. OK, then can I get out of the central power station and move this down on our truck? The man from the Salvation Army said that our apartment was damaged. Yes, I know. I mean, there's nothing I can do about it now. I'll see you later. The Lubbock Red Cross office has been asked to please contact the Odessa Red Cross on priority. How's the generator going? Well, I'm afraid we're running low on gas. Let's get an Oklahoma credit card. In neighboring Oklahoma, they probably return the compliment by calling it a Texas credit card. But either way, it means chopping off a length of garden hose and using it to siphon gas from the nearest available car to keep the emergency generator running. As you know, Mayor Granberry just a little while ago declared a state of emergency for the city of Lubbock. Things are rough here in the downtown area, and in other areas struck by the tornado. We don't know at this hour just what the extent of damages and the number of injured and dead are. We have received some reports of dead in the north part of the city. Our search and rescue teams are out at this time, composed primarily of firing police personnel. There are many other problems that face us at this point. We continue to search out the areas that have been struck by the tornado, and we'll continue to report to you by means of radio through the hours of the night. The darkness still hides many things. No one knows what they'll find with dawn. The tornadoes cut a swath more than eight miles long, nearly a mile and a half wide, right through the heart of town. It's been impartial. Nothing's been spared. The downtown business district, the industrial areas, country club, and the Mexican-American section, death and destruction everywhere. People still pinching themselves, surprised that they're still alive. What did it sound like last night when the storm started? Well, it went goose, goose, stop a while and goose. We're in that little storm cellar, and that's just the way it sounded. And the hail seemed like that big on that cellar door. Who was with you? My husband. Have you ever seen anything like this before? A parter like this with a thing there once blowed over here. I missed it about that much. This time, it got me. And the lights across the street went out twice before we ran. And you got under the bed? The kids did. I couldn't get under there. It sounded like a big Russian boy in the hail. And the top of the ceiling and everything got started piling in on top of him. What was it like after it was all over and the survivors started peeking their heads out? I don't know. I was so scared. I didn't know what to do. He had to carry me to the firelight shelter. I don't know exactly what instant it struck, but we were at the cellar door, and the rest of the family had proceeded me down into the cellar. And I wasn't going in that hole at the time. At about that time, something happened. What it was, I don't know whether it was noise or something hit me or just what it was, but something just made me say, let me in there, too. And I went. And we pulled the door, too, and no more and got it fastened and everything broke loose. We hear debris hitting the cellar door, and the cellar door would. Well, we were trying to decide whether to push on the cellar door or pull, because it was going one way, one minute, one way, the other way. You'd try to come in on us and then try to go out. Do not go into the downtown business district. Do not go into the downtown business district. Police and National Guard have cordoned off the area. There is still danger from hot wires and falling glass. Good morning, sir. Good morning. I'm taking some Coleman lanterns and stuff down here to take this testing lab. Yes, sir. You don't have to have to get permit to get in here today. They are reporting that the Green Plains building is twisted, and it should be secured. Some bricks are cracking all over at this time. There are a lot of rumors floating around town about the Great Plains building about to fall. And I think that we might have to contact some local engineers to get them by the visual inspection to give a report to the director of public works and talk about this a few minutes ago. So we'll go ahead and give a team in there to send things. In the Emergency Operating Center, 1,000 pressing problems. Setting up a temporary morgue. Clearance of emergency routes. Clothing. Shelter. For the thousands who are suddenly homeless. What Libby Center in Lubbock is now in desperate need of 300 sheets and pillowcases. Also, some diapers, some children's underwear, and blankets. For the party calling about John and Janna Goughruth, they are at Possum Kingdom and safe. Yeah, donde quiera. This is from the EOC. Lubbock Coliseum is eating sandwiches for 750 to 1,500 people. Now they'll be feeding from 5.15 PM until. Help of every kind is needed, and it's coming from every direction. Linemen from all the surrounding cities and states are coming in to restore power and communications. The Texas National Guard is there in force. So is Fourth Army with helicopters and heavy equipment. And men from Reese Air Force Base just outside the city. The presidents declared Lubbock a major disaster area. And at the airport, a White House planes arriving, bringing Texas Congressional leaders and federal executives to coordinate a massive assistance program. The city has lost 8,000 homes. Suffered nearly $150 million worth of business and industrial damage. City Hall, the police and central fire stations have been smashed. The city warehouse flattened. Two main power stations are out, and so are the main pumping stations for the water system. High water at the underpass, and you say the north. Professional divers are needed at the feedback overpass. They are needed very urgently. They need your assistance. Too much water here. Too little everywhere else. There's hardly a drop left to drink. Bill Dykeman of the Brewing Company has just reported he's shipping 2,500 cases of distilled water by force. These will be at the Red Cross Distribution Center at Broadway and Avid UX. Gifts of food and clothing are pouring in from everywhere to help the disaster victims. Day after day, the work goes on. People picking up the pieces, and no time to even catch a breath. For 10 long days and nights, the emergency center will be in continual operation. People working around the clock, eating, sleeping at their posts. Many not going home at all, until the crisis is over. 10 days. But now the book is closed. Taking out now, Linda. Good afternoon, city hall. Good morning, please. Going home, Bill? I guess. More place, baby. It's happened 1,000 times in these last 10 days. But now you have a pile of rubble that you once lovingly and finally called a home. What do you do now? I really asked just, Jim, if we've got our kids. We're lucky, though. We really are. Lucky or just a grim joke? Well, actually, in one way, Lubbock was lucky. Because we were prepared for disaster, as very few cities are. Just the year before, the Defense Civil Preparedness Agency had picked Lubbock for a pilot project, a testing ground. And disaster experts from the federal and state governments came in, worked long and hard with the city officials and authorities, to produce a model emergency readiness plan. This plan, covering every conceivable kind of disaster and telling us exactly just what we had to do. Second, we had a working emergency operating center to do it in. When the trouble came, the top executives stayed together, worked together, made the key decisions. Finally, they kept the people informed, with warning before the twister struck and full information after. These were the things that carried us through. And lucky for Lubbock, we had them. Because, well, I'm Bob Nash, and I learned that even in this day and age, you can get trampled by a dinosaur.